Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, served in a liquid, either in their own juices or a syrup

Syrup

In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...

. When served as an appetizer or as a dessert, a fruit salad is sometimes known as a fruit cocktail or fruit cup. In different forms fruit salad can be served as an appetizer, a side-salad

Salad

Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...

, or a dessert

Dessert

In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...

.

Description

There are a number of home recipe

Recipe

A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...

s for fruit salad that contain different kinds of fruit, or that use a different kind of sauce other than the fruit's own juice or syrup. One variation is a Waldorf-style

Waldorf salad

A Waldorf salad is a salad traditionally made of fresh apples, celery and walnuts, dressed in mayonnaise, and usually served on a bed of lettuce as an appetizer or a light meal.-History:...

 fruit salad, which uses a mayonnaise-based

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...

 sauce. Other recipes use sour cream

Sour cream

Sour cream is a dairy product rich in fats obtained by fermenting a regular cream by certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturally, sours and thickens the cream. Its name stems from the production of lactic acid by bacterial...

 (such as in ambrosia

Ambrosia (fruit salad)

Ambrosia is a variation on the traditional fruit salad. It contains sweetened whipped cream , sour cream, or with less calorie yogurt, pineapple, mandarin oranges, miniature marshmallows and coconut. Some versions also contain maraschino cherries, bananas, strawberries, also crushed pecans can...

), yogurt or even mustard

Mustard (condiment)

Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant...

 as the primary sauce ingredient

Ingredient

An ingredient is a substance that forms part of a mixture . For example, in cooking, recipes specify which ingredients are used to prepare a specific dish. Many commercial products contain a secret ingredient that is purported to make them better than competing products...

. An ever-popular variation also uses whipped cream mixed in with many varieties of fruits (usually a mixture of berries), and also often include miniature marshmallows. Rojak

Rojak

Rojak or Rujak is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore...

, a Malaysian fruit salad, uses a spicy sauce with peanuts and shrimp paste. In the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, fruit salads are popular party and holiday fare, usually made with buko, or young coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

, and condensed milk

Condensed milk

Condensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if unopened. The two terms, condensed milk and sweetened...

 in addition to other canned or fresh fruit.

There is also an extended variety of fruit salads in Moroccan cuisine, often as part of a kemia, a selection of appetisers or small dishes analogous to Spanish tapas

Tapas

Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold or warm ....

 or eastern Mediterranean mezze.

A fruit salad ice cream is also commonly manufactured, with small pieces of real fruit embedded in, flavored either with juices from concentrate, fruit extracts or artificial chemicals.

"Fruit Salad" is also the name of a song by Australian children's band The Wiggles

The Wiggles

The Wiggles are a children's group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. Their original members were Anthony Field, Phillip Wilcher, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt. Wilcher left the group after their first album...

 and on the television show Wonder Pets

Wonder Pets

Wonder Pets is an American animated children's television series. It debuted on March 3, 2006, on the Nick Jr. block of the Nickelodeon cable television network and Noggin on the same day...

.

"Fruit-salad" is also a slang term used for medals on a soldiers uniform- "Look at the fruit-salad on that colonel." The term refers to the bright colors of a high percentage of the ribbons

Ribbon bar

Ribbon bars are small decorations that are worn by military, police, and fire service personnel or by civilians. Ribbon bars are mainly used when wearing either full decoration, or when wearing medals is considered inappropriate or impractical. Each military force has its own rules on what ribbons...

 that usually go with medals.

Fruit cocktail

Fruit cocktail is often sold canned

Tin can

A tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is a sealed container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal. Many cans require opening by cutting the "end" open; others have removable covers. Cans hold diverse contents: foods, beverages, oil, chemicals, etc."Tin" cans are made...

 and is a staple of cafeteria

Cafeteria

A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...

s, but can also be made fresh. The use of the word "cocktail" in the name does not mean that it contains alcohol, but refers to the secondary definition "An appetizer made by combining pieces of food, such as fruit or seafood". Fruit cocktail is sometimes used to make pruno

Pruno

Pruno, or prison wine, is an alcoholic liquid variously made from apples, oranges, fruit cocktail, ketchup, sugar, and possibly other ingredients, including crumbled bread. Bread provides the yeast for the pruno to ferment. Pruno originated in prisons and jails, where it can be produced cheaply,...

.

In the United States, the USDA stipulates that canned "Fruit cocktail" must contain pears

Pear

The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....

, grapes, cherries, peach

Peach

The peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...

es, and pineapples, otherwise it cannot be called fruit cocktail. It should contain fruits in not less nor more than the following percentages:

• 30% to 50% diced peaches, any yellow variety
• 25% to 45% diced pears, any variety
• 6% to 16% diced pineapple, any variety
• 6% to 20% whole grapes, any seedless variety
• little to no cherry halves, any light sweet or artificial red variety

Both William Vere Cruess

William Vere Cruess

William Vere Cruess was an American food scientist who pioneered the use of fruits to produce fruit-juice beverages, fruit-based concentrates and syrups. He was one of the first investigators in the United States to use freezing storage for preservation of fruits and fruit products...

 of the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 and Herbert Gray of the Barron-Gray Packing Company of San Jose, California

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

 have been credited with the invention of fruit cocktail. Canned fruit cocktail and canned fruit salad

Fruit salad

Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, served in a liquid, either in their own juices or a syrup. When served as an appetizer or as a dessert, a fruit salad is sometimes known as a fruit cocktail or fruit cup...

are similar, but fruit salad contains larger fruit while fruit cocktail is diced.

External links

• History of fruit salad, *Recipes, CooksRecipes.com
• Fruit Salad video
• http://marloelaine.com/2008/07/18/fabulous-filipino-fruit-salad/ Filipino Fruit Salad Recipe
• USDA Fruit Guideline ("Fruit Cocktail" definition on page 41)